Roll the Process Forward to Optimize Driver Recruiting Results

Finding reliable and loyal talent to work for a business is a struggle for any industry, and the stakes are even higher when talking about the truck industry. Companies are looking to recruit younger drivers to replace their outgoing workers. Several industry subject matter experts offer their advice on how to optimize driver recruiting results.

What Employers Say About Recruiting

Centerline Drivers has connected more than 50,000 professional drivers with Fortune 1000 and mid-sized companies since its founding in 1975. According to the company’s annual State of the Trucking Survey, 72% of employers last year said they’re having a harder time recruiting drivers, according to Managing Director of Recruiting Shane Keller.

“That’s a significant increase from the previous year, when only 57% said they were having a hard time,” Keller says. “We learned during that survey that the problem may really lie in a lack of outside-the-box thinking. Less than 25% of companies surveyed reported doing anything creative when it came to recruiting drivers. Even among those 25% seem to be doing kind of the same old things.” continued on page 38 continued from page 37

According to Heather Jewell, Director of Marketing Strategy for Fusion Now, an agency specializing in driver marketing and recruiting, a large part of her job is to identify those challenges in the recruiting process. She said most companies are missing the mark with conversion rates.

“A large part of that has to do with the length of the process, and the time to hire that carriers have in keeping drivers interested and engaged during that process as well,” Jewell says. “On the process side of things, I always recommend at least monthly sitting down and looking at what your process is from a driver’s perspective and being a little bit more empathetic there.”